YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE MIDDLE KINGDOM VOLUME II. ^-Y/y ^>tV S^"^ j >N ¦°,?5k %K" ^'X ' THE MIDDLE KINGDOM; A SURVEY OF THE GEOGRAPHY, GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION, SOCIAL LIFE; ARTS, RELIGION," &c, THE CHINESE EMPIRE AND ITS INHABITANTS. WITH A NEW MAP OE THE EMPIEE, AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PRINCIPALLY ENGRAVED BY J. W. ORE. BY S. WELLS WILLIAMS, AUTHOR OP "EASY LESSONS IN CHINESE," "ENGLISH ANB CHINESE VOCABULARY" &«. SECOND EDITION. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. NEW YORK: GEORGE PALMER PUTNAM (LATE OP «ILEY & PUTNAM), 155 BROADWAY: AND PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 1848. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by S. WELLS WILLIAMS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern. District of New York II- CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 112 FULTON STREET. ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. II. Portrait of Rev. D. Abeel. Wheelbarrows used for travelling, Bridge showing the mode of making the arch, Barber's Establishment, Tricks played with the queue, Procession of Ladies to an ancestral Temple, Appearance of the bones of a foot when compressed, Feet of Chinese Ladies, Shape of a Lady's Shoe, Boys gambling with Crickets, Peddler's Barrow, . . . . Group and residence of Fishermen^ Fishing Cormorant, ... Cobbler and his movable Workshop, Mode of firing Tea, Travelling Blacksmith and his Shop, Fancy carved Work, Representation of a Man Dreaming, Caricature of an English Foraging Party, Chinese notions of the Human Body, Pwanku chiselling out the Heavens, Tau Priests jumping through the Fire, Ancestral Hall and Worship of Tablets, Budhist Priests, Man consulting a Fortune-Teller, Manner of smoking Opium, 2027 31 3235 39 404190 104 110 111125 132 139 141 174 177181 197 247268273 277 392 CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAPTER XIII ARCHITECTURE, DRESS, AND DIET OF THE CHINESE. PAGE Style and materials of Chinese dwellings — Their arrangement, orna ments, furniture, and apartments — Gardens and summer-houses — Shops and warehouses — Temples and assembly-halls, taverns, &c. — Streets and municipal regulations — Pagodas and carriages — Boats used for dwellings and transportation ; junks — Honorary portals, bridges, forts, towers, &c. — Dress ; materials and shape of gar ments — Shaving the head — Female apparel— Cramping the feet — Food ; grain and vegetables — Fruits ; sugar and tea— Animal food ; fish, &c. — Cooking 1 CHAPTER XIV. SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE CHINESE. Professions — Separation between the sexes — Ceremonies of betroth- ment and marriage— Procession, presents, and feast — Polygamy ; its effects and extent — Legal rights of woman — Power of parents — Names given to people, shops, &c. — Official etiquette — Common intercourse and visiting — Festivities — Newyear ; its observances and hilarity — Feast of lanterns — Style of processions — Theatres; the actors and dresses— Gambling with money, crickets, dice, &c. — Contrarieties in Chinese customs — Lights and shades of Chinese character. . . .... 52 100 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF THE CHINESE. Agriculture ; tenure of land — Agricultural implements — Terracf Cultivation of rice, cotton, hemp, tallow-tree, &c— Annual plough ing ceremony— Modes of catching fish — Mechanical arts — Metal lurgy — Glass and porcelain — Lacquered-ware — Silk manufacture Tea; its growth, preparation, kinds, and amount— Cassia, camphor, &c. — Carving and working in ivory, metals, &c. . CHAPTER XVI. SCIENCE OF THE CHINESE. Mathematical and Astronomical knowledge — Sexagenary cycle, and other divisions of time — Astrology ; geographical notions and trea tises — Mensuration — Weights, moneys, &c. — System of business — Theory of war, arms, uniforms, and arrangement of troops — Music ; its notation and character — Instrumental and vocal music— Painting and statuary — Paintings on pith, leaves, and glass — Attainments in natural philosophy — Ideas of anatomy, and practice of medicine and surgery — Diseases . . . . . 145 CHAPTER XVII. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY OF CHINA. Cosmogony of the Chinese ; P wanku and his deeds — Mythological history — Dates compared with the Bible — Establishment of Chinese people— Five sovereigns, Fuhhi and his successors — Three dynasties of Hia, Shang, and Chau — Tsin, builder ofthe Eastern Wall— Modern history — Han, Tang, and Sung dynasties— Mongol conqueror, Kub- lai — Ming dynasty — Manchus overrun China, their monarchs. 193 CHAPTER XVIII. RELIGION OF THE CHINESE. Negative features of their religion — Character and objects of worship -in the state religion, position of the emperor in it — Official worship required of all magistrates— Sect of Tau or Rationalists Its founder Lau-tsz' — Magical rites and mythology of the priests— Budhism • its introduction into China ; its tenets, priests, and ceremonies Nun neries — Shamanism — Infanticide— Ideas relating to spirits Funeral ceremonies — Worship of ancestral manes; its nature and univer sality — Festivals for the dead — Fortune-telling — Benevolent insti tutions in China — Mohammedans and Jews in China. . oon CONTENTS. VU PAGE CHAPTER XIX CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AMONG THE CHINESE Nestorians visit China — Tablet recording their labors — Prester John — Roman Catholic missionary, Corvino — Ricci enters China, and makes his way to Peking — His character— Paul Siu and his daughter Can dida — Influence of Schaal at court — Reverses at the death of Shun- chi — Verbiest appointed to reform the Calendar — Disputes about ancestral worship — Present condition of the Romish missions — Plan of operations ; baptisms, schools, and converts — Degree of influence upon Chinese society — Protestant missions to the Chinese — Mor rison's labors and character — Missions in the Indian Archipelago ; in Canton, Amoy, Ningpo, and Shanghai — Missionary hospitals — Distribution of books — Translation of Bible — Qualified toleration of Christianity. . . ... ... 290 CHAPTER XX. COMMERCE OF THE CHINESE. Opium trade commences — Mode of cultivating the poppy — Preparation of opium — Prohibited by the Chinese — Mode of seething and smoking it — History of its trade — Coasting and internal trade of China— " Export trade, and its principal articles— Import trade, and notice of the principal articles — Manner of conducting the trade — Tables of trade for 1845. . . . . 381 CHAPTER XXI. FOREIGN INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA. Earliest notices of China — The Seres, Sinae, Sesatae, &c. — Traffic through Central Asia — Embassy from Rome — Arabian travellers — Missions of Carpini, Ascelin, and Rubruquis, to the grand khan — Marco Polo— Ibn Batuta and Oderic — Portuguese reach China; their embassies, trade, &c. — Dutch occupy Formosa — Embassies to Peking — Russian intercourse and embassies — English trade and embassies — Conduct and influence of the East India Company — American intercourse. 417 CHAPTER XXII. ORIGIN OF THE WAR WITH ENGLAND Lord Napier sent to Canton — Becomes involved with governor Lu — Nature of their disagreement — Trade stopped — His death — Grounds for refusing a correspondence of equality — British commission re tires to Macao — Sir G, B. Robinson succeeds — Capt. Elliot becomes superintendent — Discussion respecting legalizing opium — Reasons against it — Discussion respecting the trade among foreigners— Riot at Canton — Lin arrives at Canton— Opium surrendered. . . 468 Vlll CONTENTS. PiO> CHAPTER XXIII. PROGRESS of the war and opening of china. Advanced force arrives — Tinghai taken— Interview at Taku — Treaty of the Bogue— Attack on Canton — Sir Henry Pottinger supersedes Captain Elliot — Amoy, Tinghai, Chinhai, Ningpo, Chapu, and Shanghai taken — Passage up the Yangtsz' kiang — Chinkiang fu taken and pillaged — Peace of Nanking — British forces retire — Riot . at Canton — Supplementary treaty of the Bogue — Traffic and com mercial regulations — Hon. C. Cushing negotiates the treaty of Wanghia between the United States and China— Riot and homicide at Canton — M. de Lagrene" negotiates the treaty of Whampoa be tween France and China — Causes of future collision and prospects of peace — Conclusion. . . . ... 528 THE MIDDLE KINGDOM., CHAPTER XIII. Architecture, Dress, and Diet of the Chinese. It is a sensible remark of De Guignes (Vol. ii., p. 173), that " the habit we fall into of conceiving things according to the words which express them, often leads us into error when read ing the relations of travellers. Such writers have seen objects altogether new, but they are compelled, when describing them, to employ equivalent terms in their own language in order to be understood ; while these same terms tend to deceive the reader, who imagines that he sees such palaces, colonnades, peristyles, &c, under these designations as he has been used to, when, in fact, they are quite another thing." The same observation is true of other things than architecture, and of other nations than the Chinese, and this confusion of terms and meanings proves a fruitful source of error in regard to an accurate knowledge of foreign nations, and a just perception of their condition. For instance, the terms a court of justice, a common school, politeness, learning, navy, houses, &c, as well as the names of things, like razor, shoe, cap, bed, pencil, paper, &c, are inapplicable to the same things in England and China ; while it is plainly impossible to coin a new word in English to describe the Chinese article, and equally inexpedient to introduce the native term. If, for example, the utensil used by the Chinese to shave with should be picked up in Portsmouth by some one who had never seen or heard of it, he would be as likely to call it an oyster knife, or a vol. 11. 3 THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. wedge, as a razor ; while the use to which it is applied must of course give it that name, and would, if it were still more unlike the western article. So with other things. The ideas a Chinese gives to the terms hwangti, kwanfu, pau, pih, and shu, are very different from those conveyed to an American by the words emperor, magistrate, cannon, pencil, and book. Since a person can only judge of what he hears or reads by what he knows, it is desirable that when he reads or hears western names applied to their equivalents in eastern countries, the function of a different civilization, habits, and notions, should form an element in the opinion he forms. These remarks are peculiarly applicable to the domestic life of the Chinese, to their houses, diet, dress, and customs in social intercourse ; and although careful descriptions may go a good way in conveying just ideas, it cannot be hoped that they will do what a single look would instantly accomplish. The notions entertained abroad on these particulars are, it need hardly be remarked, rather more accurate than those the Chinese have of distant countries, and it is scarcely possible that they can lose their conceit in their own civilization and position among the nations so long as such ideas are entertained as the following extract exhibits. Tien Kishih, a popular essayist, thus congratulates himself and his readers : " I felicitate myself that I was born in China, and constantly think how very differ ent it would have been with me, if I had been born beyond the seas in some remote part of the earth, where the people, far removed from the converting maxims of the ancient kings, and ignorant of the domestic relations, are clothed with the leaves of plants, eat wood, dwell in the wilderness, and live in the holes of the earth ; though born in the world, in such a condition I should not have been different from the beasts of the field. But now, happily, I have been born in the Middle Kino-dom. I have a house to live in ; have food and drink, and elegant furniture ¦ have clothing and caps, and infinite blessings : truly, the highest felicity is mine." Whatever may be thought of the accuracy of these statements, it is plain that the author considered his own country preferable to the neighboring regions ; and that while the Chinese possessed food and drink, clothing and caps, houses and furniture, the rest of the world, in his opinion, was destitute of them.The architecture of the Chinese is unique, presenting in its STYLE AND MATERIALS OF CHINESE BUILDINGS. 3 general outline, a reserhblance to a t^nt. From the palace to the hovel, in temples and in private dwellings, this type every. where stands confessed ; nor do many instances occur of an attempt to develop even this simple model into a grand or impos ing building. While the Mogul princes in India reared costly mausolea and palaces to perpetuate their memory and the splen dor of their reigns, the monarchs of China, with equal or greater resources at command, never indulged in this princely pastime, nor even attempted the erection of any enduring monument to commemorate their taste or their splendor. Whether it was owing to the absence of the beautiful and majestic models seen in western countries, or to an entire ignorance of the mechanical principles of the art, the fact is not the less observable, and the inference as to the advance made by them in knowledge and taste not less just. There is almost nothing in the country like an ancient architectural ruin, nothing which has come down to inform us whether previous generations constructed edifices more splendid or more mean than the present. Dwelling-houses are generally of one story, having neither cel lars nor basements, and for the most part without dormer windows or attics ; they must not equal the temples in height, nor possess the ornaments appropriated to palaces and temples. The com mon building materials are bricks, sifted earth, matting, or thatch for the walls, stone for the foundation, brick tiling for the roof, and wood for the inner work ; wooden houses are not unknown, the roof being supported by posts, between which is a coarsely woven matwork covered with mud and whitewash. The ni chuen, or sifted earth, is a compound of sifted gravel and lime mixed with water, and sometimes a little oil, of which durable walls are made by pounding it into a solid mass between planks secured at the sides, and elevated as the wall rises ; or by beating it into large blocks and laying them like bricks in a wall ; when stuccoed and protected from the rain, this material gradu ally hardens into stone. In houses of the better sort, the stone work of the foundation rises three or four feet. above the ground, and is laid with great regularity and solidity. The fronts of dwelling-houses present no opening except the door, and when the outer walls of several houses join those of gardens and in- closures, the street presents an uninteresting sameness, unre lieved by steps, windows, porticoes, or front yards. The walls THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. are twenty-five or thirty feet high, usually hollow, or so thin as to be unable to support the roof unaided ; nor are the builders very particular about their perfect uprightness. The bricks are the same size as our own, and burned to a greyish slate color, though there are red bricks ; they are made by hand, and sell from $3 to $8 a thousand. Lime is obtained from shells ; for, even if the Chinese were aware that lime can be procured from limestone (which does not appear to be known), the dearness of fuel would se'riously interfere with burning the stone into lime. The walls are often stuccoed, but not painted, and the bricks are occasionally rubbed smooth with stones, and the interstices pointed with fine cement. In place of a broad cornice, the top of the wall is frequently relieved by a pretty ornament of moulded work of painted clay figures in alto relievo representing a battle scene, a landscape, clusters of flowers, or some other design, defended from the weather by the projecting eaves. A black painted band, relieved by corners and designs of flowers and scrolls, is a cheap substitute for the carved figures. The roofs are generally hipped, and everywhere discover their tented origin in the catenary curve of their edges. They are made of thin earthen tiles, appearing in alternate ridges and furrows. The under layer consists of square thin pieces, laid side by side in ascending rows with the lower edges overlapping ; the edges are joined by a layer of semi-cylindrical tiles, which are further secured by a covering of mortar. Terraces are erected on shops, but balustrades or chimneys on dwellings, or flat roofs, are seldom seen. The corners and ridges of temples and palaces are frequently ornamented with green and yellow earthen figures of dragons, snakes, fishes, &c, which some times form a very conspicuous object in the general appearance ofthe building, where ornament is not looked for, but not so much so as is often represented in Chinese drawings. Occa sionally, the side walls rise above the roof in deo-rees impart ing a singular, bow-like aspect to the edifice. In order to support the roof, the purlines and ridgepole consist of strong tim bers extending from wall to wall, and the rafters of slender strips, on which the tiles are upheld ; in hipped roofs, the principal weight rests on pillars, with a series of king and queen posts in tervening, by which every part is equably supported, but curb roofs are not made, since the space is not required for attics. The rjil- ARRANGEMENT OF DWELLING-HOUSES. 5 lars are of stone or red varnished wood, without base or capital, of disproportionate shape, and frequently ornamented with carv ing and inscriptions, or concealed by scrolls. In two story houses, or where it is impracticable to support the roof in this way, the roorris are contracted, and the cross walls built up to the plate, each room being covered by its own roof. The pillars are occasionally arranged so as to foroi side passages to the rear rooms, the intercolumniations being screened or built up ; a slight ceiling usually conceals the tiling, but the apartment ap pears lofty, owing to the elevation of the roof. The general arrangement of a Chinese dwelling of the better sort is that of a series of rooms of different dimensions, separated and lighted by intervening courts, and accessible along a covered corridor, communicating with each, or by side passages leading through the courts. In the former case, the corridor opens out upon a garden. In towns, where the houses are of one story, and the lots irregular in their shape, there is much more diversity in the arrangement and size of rooms ; and in the country es tablishments of wealthy families, where the gradual increase of the members calls for additional space to accommodate the fami lies of the sons, the succession of courts and buildings, inter spersed with gardens and pools, sometimes renders the whole not a little complicated. The custom of cramping the feet, and thus disabling the women from going up and down stairs, may have had its effect in keeping the rooms upon a level. In isolated bungalows, a second, and even a third story, each smaller than the one below it, is often built by raising the pillars or cross walls above the roof of the ground story, and surrounding the room thus formed by a veranda. The entrance into large mansions in the country is by a triple gate leading through a lawn or garden up to the hall ; but in towns, a single-door, usually elevated a step or two above the street, introduces the visitor into a porch or court. A wall or movable screen is placed inside of the doorway, and the inter vening space is occupied by the porter ; upon the wall on the left is the shrine dedicated to the gods of the threshold. The door is solidly constructed, and moves upon pivots turning in sockets. Under the projecting eaves, hang paper lanterns in forming the passer by of the name and title of the householder, and when lighted at night, serving to illumine the street and de- THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. signate his habitation, for door-plates and numbers are unknown. The roughness of the gate is somewhat concealed by the names or grotesque representations of two tutelar gods, Shintu and K uh- lui, to whom the guardianship of the house is intrusted ; and its sides and lintel are embellished with classical quotations written upon red paper, or with sign-boards of literary rank. The door keeper and other servants frequently lodge in small rooms within the gateway, and above the porch is an attic containing one or two apartments, to be reached by a rude stairway. In the coun try, none but the door-keeper lodges near the entrance. On passing behind the screen, a paved open court, occasional ly adorned with flowers or a fancy fish-pool, is crossed when entering the principal hall. At the south, a row of pillars sup ports the plate instead of a wall, but at the north the front is partly walled up, and the top furnished with a lattice-work or paper windows to admit the light. The upper end of the hall is furnished with a high table or altar, on which incense vases and idolatrous utensils and sacrifices are placed in honor of the di vinities and lares worshipped there, whose tablets and names are on the wall. Sometimes the table merely contains grotesque or costly ornaments of various kinds. Before the table is the prin cipal seat, a large square couch, with a low stand in the centre, and a pillow for reclining upon. In front of it, the chairs are arranged down the room in two rows facing each other, each pair having a small table between them. The floors are made of square tiles of brick or marble, or of hard cement, and matted ; wooden floors are not very common upon the ground story. Even in a bright day the room is dim, and the absence of carpets and fireplaces, and of windows to afford a prospect abroad, renders it cheerless to a foreigner, accustomed to his own glazed and more elevated houses. A rear door near the side wall opens either into a kitchen or court, across which are the female apartments, or directly into the latter, and the rooms for domestics. Instead of being always rectangular, the doors are sometimes round, leaf-shaped, or semi circular, apertures, and it is thought desirable that they should not open opposite each other, lest evil spirits find their way from the street into the recesses of the dwelling. The rear rooms are lighted by skylights when other modes are unavailable, and the thin lamina of a species of oyster shell (Placuna) cut into small MODES OF LIGHTING AND WARMING HOUSES. 7 squares supply the place of window-glass. Latterly, this ma terial has become cheap at Canton, though one reason for its limited use is the fear of thieves. Oiled paper is employed at the north instead of shells. The kitchen is a small affair, for the universal use of portable furnaces enables the inmates to cook wherever the smoke will be least troublesome. Even if there is a chimney, which is not common, it does not project beyond the roof. Warming the house, even as far north as Ningpo, is not frequent, but further up, as at Peking, the inmates are pro tected from the cold by closing the crevices, and constructing flues under the rooms, which are heated by one fire. The poor build a sort of brick fireplace, which by day is used for cooking, and at night for a bed, by placing felt carpets over the warm bricks, where all thie family sleep. Every effort is made to hus band fuel, which is not only high priced, but scarce. The country establishments of grandees are arranged on a little different plan from the dwellings in towns, and their grounds are walled in. In these inclosures, the hall of ancestors, library, school-room, and summer-houses, are often detached from the main edifice, and erected upon low plinths, sur rounded by a veranda, and frequently decorated with paint and ornamental carving. Near the rear court are the female apart ments and offices, many of the former and the sleeping apart ments being in attics. Considerable space is occupied by the quadrangles, which are paved and embellished by fish-pools, flowering shrubs, and other plants. Mr. Fortune (Wanderings, page 98) describes the house and garden of a gentleman at Ningpo, as being connected by rude looking caverns of rock- work, " and what at first sight appears to be a subterranean pas sage leading from room to room, through which the visitor passes to the garden. The small courts, of which a glimpse is caught in passing along, are fitted up with rockwork ; dwarf trees are planted here and there in various places, and graceful creepers hang down into the pools in front. These being passed, another cavernous passage leads into the garden, with its dwarf trees, vases, ornamented lattices, and beautiful shrubs suddenly opening to the view. By windings and glimpses along the rocky passa ges into other courts, and hiding the real boundary by masses of shrubs and trees, the grounds are made to appear much larger than they really are." 8 THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. The houses of the poor are dark, dirty, low, and narrow tene ments, without floor or windows, and the few apartments wretched in the extreme. The door is a mat swinging from the lintel, and the whole family often sleep, eat, and live in a single room. Pigs, dogs, and hens dispute the space with chil dren and furniture, if a table, and a few trestles and stools, pots and plates, deserve that name, and all the duties of cooking and working are conducted in or near this room. The filthy street without is a counterpart to the gloomy, smoky abode within, and a single walk through the streets and lanes of such a neighbor hood is sufficient to reconcile a person to any ordinary condition of life. On the outskirts of the town a still poorer class are forced to take up with huts made of mats and thatch upon the ground, through which the rain and wind find free course. It is surprising that people can live and enjoy health, and even be cheerful, as the Chinese are, in such circumstances. Between these miserable dwellings, and the spacious abodes of the rich, is a class of middle houses, consisting of three or four small rooms under a single roof, and lodging eight, ten, or more inmates. The best furniture is made of a dark durable wood resembling ebony ; but the rooms are filled with ornamental articles, such as large porcelain jars and vases, copper tripods or pots, stone screens, book-shelves and stands, &c, rather than with chairs, couches, or tables. The ink sketches of landscapes, and the pairs of gay scrolls inscribed with sentences suspended from the walls, and the pretty lanterns hanging from the ceiling, relieve tlie cheerlessness of the room ; and the combined effect is not destitute of variety and even elegance, though there is a want of what we term comfort. Partitions are sometimes fancifully made of lattice work with a great number of openings, neatly arranged for the reception of boxes containing books. The bed rooms are small, poorly ventilated, and seldom visited except at night. A rich bedstead is a massive article, made of costly woods, elaborately carved, and supporting a tester, from which hang silken curtains. The front of the tester is ornarnented with a fancy scroll, and the mosquito curtains, with which every bed is provided, triced up with copper or silver hooks. Cheaper bedsteads simply consist of two boards resting on trestles, and the bedclothes of a quilted coverlet. Mattresses STYLE OF GARDENS. 9 feather beds are not used, and the pillow is a hard square frame of rattan or bamboo. The bed and its appurtenances of a wardrobe and toilet, usually complete the furniture of the sleep- ing apartments of the Chinese, who, generally speaking, care very little for this part of their houses. Servants and workmen are accommodated in separate apartments, or find a lodgment by spreading their mat and coverlet upon the floor or piazza. The women belonging to the house have no other room than their chamber, and ordinarily each wife and concubine has her own. The grounds of the rich are laid out in good style, and no expense is spared upon them ; and were not the tasteful arrange ments and diversified shrubbery which would render them charming resorts, almost always spoiled by their general bad keeping, — neglect and ruin, if not nastiness and offals, being often visible in Chinese gardens, especially if the mansion be an old one, — they would please the most fastidious. The necessity of having a place for the women and children of the household to recreate themselves, is one reason for having an open space within the inclosure, even if it be only a plat of flowers or a bed of vegetables. In the imperial gardens, the attempt to make an epitome of nature has been highly successful ; and such is the case too in others which foreigners have visited, where the owner was able to gratify his taste. De Guignes describes their art of gardening as " imitating the beauties and producing the inequalities of nature. Instead of alleys planted symmetrically or uniform grounds, there are winding footpaths, trees here and there as if by chance, woody or sterile hillocks, and deep gulleys with narrow passages, whose sides are steep or rough with rocks, and presenting only a few miserable shrubs. They like to bring together in gardening in the same view, cultivated grounds and arid plains ; to make the field uneven, and cover it with artifi cial rockwork ; to dig caverns in mountains, on whose tops are arbors half overthrown, and around which tortuous footpaths run and return into themselves, prolonging, as it were, the extent of the grounds and increasing the pleasure of the walk." A pool or fish pond, supplied by a rivulet running wildly through the grounds or over the hillocks when possible, forms an indispensable feature of such gardens, in which if there be room, a summer-house is erected on a rocky islet, or on piles over the VOL. n. 2* 10 THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. water, accessible by a rugged causey of rockwork. The lotus is grown in the pools, its large plate-like leaves and magnificent flowers rendering it a general favorite, and carp and other fish are reared in their waters ; gold fish are kept in small vessels or tanks. Whenever it is possible, a gallery runs along the sides of the pond for the pleasure and use of the females in the house hold. Jets-d'eau are uncommon, nor are dwelling-houses fur nished with water by pipes, wells and cisterns being the usual sources of supply. A pretty device in some gardens, which beguiles the visitor's ramble, is to make a rude kind of shell or pebble mosaic in the gravelly paths, representing birds, animals, or other figures ; the time required to decipher them prolongs the walk, and apparently increases the size of the grounds. The pieces of rockwork are cemented together, and bound with strong wire; and in fish- pools, grottoes,- or causeways, this unique ornament almost always has a pretty effect, partly because the moss and plants which grow upon it from neglect add rather to its appropriateness. The wood and mason work of the Chinese is showy and un substantial, requiring constant repairs, and therefore both their gardens and houses, when neglected, soon fall into a ruinous con dition ; but when new they present a pretty appearance. The Fa ti or Flower gardens near Canton, well known to foreigners there, are merely shops for the sale of plants kept in pots, and make no pretensions to ornamental gardening. Some of the principal merchants there have cultivated grounds of greater or less extent attached to their establishments, but none of them have gardens exhibiting much of the peculiar style of the country. One of the late hong-merchants built a glass summer-house on his premises covered by a light roof, and so that it could be closed with shutters. All who entered it could hardly avoid quoting the old adage, " Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones." The arrangement of shops and warehouses necessarily differs from that of dwelling-houses, but either from not feelin